No. My pension comes from third-party investment asset manager which handles pre-deposited retirement obligations. A VEBA handles my benefits. I haven't had any contact with GM since I retired in 2008. I'm not involved with the UMWA at all.

Your use of the term "bailout" implies charity, which there was none of. The "loan" was repaid.

“See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.”― George W. Bush

First you posted, "Actually, Taxes are at the lowest they've been since 1941."

Then you linked a post showing federal tax rates since 1913.

Were you talking about all taxes, federal taxes, taxes paid, or tax rates, or are you just befuddled as usual?

Thank you Winston!That is not nice to call Winston a dumbazz either

I was not even born in 1941 so that MEANS in 1913 either Singledad I guess AKA- excelman)Since I was not on earth in those years I had no concern what the dam taxes were!Don't care now either. You never posted any that others might be interested in reading on the taxes back in those days?

Just for the record I was born in 1946, but was not aware of politics until Eisenhower virtually shut down TVA construction, thereby putting my dad out of work, so my memory of political things goes back only to about 1952 or so.

"“There are some people in politics and in the press who can’t be confused by the facts,” “They just will not live in an evidence-based world." Hillary ClintonDamm she will make a great president !

Excelman wrote:Just for the record I was born in 1946, but was not aware of politics until Eisenhower virtually shut down TVA construction, thereby putting my dad out of work, so my memory of political things goes back only to about 1952 or so.

Don't worry. If these Regressives have their way, you'll be able to remember what it was like in the 40s. The 1840s.

Excelman wrote:Just for the record I was born in 1946, but was not aware of politics until Eisenhower virtually shut down TVA construction, thereby putting my dad out of work, so my memory of political things goes back only to about 1952 or so.

Don't worry. If these Regressives have their way, you'll be able to remember what it was like in the 40s. The 1840s.

Can the GOP be saved from its obsession with the 1950s?

An interesting story in this weekend’s New York Times about how, from technology to social issues, the Republican party is stuck in the past, and it’s hurting them in elections, increasingly so. This article has been flying around Democratic Netroots-types as a “must read” all weekend. I’ll walk you through some of the most interesting parts.

The focus group was made up of young, 20-something middle class voters who voted for Obama but don’t consider themselves committed Democrats.

They started with the women, wrote a word on a blackboard, and ask them to free associate:

The session with the young men was equally jarring. None of them expressed great enthusiasm for Obama. But their depiction of Republicans was even more lacerating than the women’s had been. “Racist,” “out of touch” and “hateful” made the list — “and put ‘1950s’ on there too!” one called out.

The 1950s. And isn’t that the point. The Republicans are trying so hard to get America back to the 1950s, when the number of Americans interested in living in the 1950s continues to dwindle, and most definitely isn’t found among younger voters.

And almost to a person that I’ve talked to, they say, ‘Yeah, I would probably vote for Republicans, but I can’t get past the gay-marriage ban, the abortion stance, all of these social causes.’ Almost universally, they see a future where you have more options, not less.

The G.O.P. has lost the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections. The party brand — which is to say, its message and its messengers — has become practically abhorrent to emerging demographic groups like Latinos and African-Americans, not to mention an entire generation of young voters.

As one of the party’s most highly respected strategists told me: “It ought to concern people that the most Republican part of the electorate under Ronald Reagan were 18-to-29-year-olds[now roughly age 48 to 60]. And today, people I know who are under 40 are embarrassed to say they’re Republicans. They’re embarrassed! They get harassed for it, the same way we used to give liberals a hard time.”

Forum Poster wrote:Wal-Mart's customers are basically America, so this is a reflection of where we stand. Tax increases are beginning to take a toll on everyone and we may be headed for some serious economic difficulties. (As if we haven't had enough up to this point.)

The tax break, which was pushed by the White House to stimulate spending in 2011 and extended in 2012, was always supposed to be temporary. But with pressure building in Washington to reduce the deficit and politicians fighting bitterly over whether to raise taxes on the very rich, the question of how the increase in Social Security taxes would affect the poorest workers did not seem to garner much debate on either side of the aisle.

“I don’t see any reason to consider supporting its extension,” said Timothy F. Geithner, the Treasury secretary, in testimony last year. Even Nancy Pelosi, a reliable liberal who leads the Democratic minority in the House of Representatives, was for letting it expire.

The higher rate applies to all earned income up to $113,700. For a household earning $100,000 a year, the two-percentage-point increase means an additional $2,000 a year in payroll deductions. Economists estimate that the payroll tax increase will reduce disposable income by about $120 billion and shave half a percentage point from economic growth in the first quarter — a significant blow given that the economy is expected to expand only 1 to 2 percent in the first half of 2013.

“If you wanted to design a policy to squeeze the spending of lower- and middle-income households, raising the payroll tax is the way to do it,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomic Advisors. “It’s very regressive.”

“I wouldn’t expect it to have much of an effect on BMW consumption,” said Richard H. Thaler, a professor of behavioral science and economics at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. “The people who will notice it the most are the ones making the least.”